1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vibrator support structure, a vibrating gyroscope therewith, and an electronic device including such a vibrating gyroscope with the vibrator support structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A tuning fork type vibrator which is used for a vibrating gyroscope, and which vibrates in a both-end bending vibration mode, is often supported by fixing the vicinities of the node point thereof to the support members of which the end portions are fixed to the vibrator base. The term xe2x80x9cvibrator basexe2x80x9d refers to an element that provides a base for stably supporting the vibrator. An example of such a vibrator support structure is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-269227, in which a frame body 17 corresponds to the vibrator base, and wire members 8 correspond to the support members.
In such a conventional vibrator support structure, the vibrator base is formed by injection-molding using an engineering plastic such as a liquid crystal polymer (LCP; specific gravity: 1.6).
In order to prevent vibration of the vibrator from leaking to the outside, it is necessary to improve the xe2x80x9cvibration confinement effectxe2x80x9d of the vibrator base by increasing the mass thereof. For this purpose, the vibrator base has been enlarged, or a weight such as a brass member has been adhered to the vibrator base. A technique for adhering the weight to the vibrator base is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 56-14711.
With the increasing range of uses for vibrating gyroscopes, the demand for miniaturizing the gyroscopes has grown. This has led directly to the demand for the miniaturization of vibrators and vibrator support structures.
However, if the mass of the vibrator base is reduced by the miniaturization thereof, a problem occurs in that the xe2x80x9cvibration confinement effectxe2x80x9d of the vibrator base decreases and that the vibration of the vibrator becomes unstable.
On the other hand, if a weight is adhered to the vibrator base, the xe2x80x9cvibration confinement effectxe2x80x9d of the vibrator base will be improved, but this will create other problems in that not only the miniaturization of the vibrator support structure is prevented, but also the number of components and the number of assembly man-hours are increased, resulting in an impediment to the cost reduction.
In order to overcome the problems described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a compact vibrator support structure having a high xe2x80x9cvibration confinement effectxe2x80x9d, a vibrating gyroscope therewith, and an electronic device including the vibrating gyroscope with the novel vibrator support structure.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a vibrator support structure includes a vibrator base, support members fixed to the vibrator base, and a vibrator supported by the support members. In this vibrator support structure, the vibrator base is preferably made of a material having a specific gravity of about 3.0 or greater.
In the vibrator support structure according to preferred embodiments of the present invention, it is preferred that the vibrator base be formed by molding using a resin material into which a metal or a ceramic is mixed.
Furthermore, another preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a vibrating gyroscope including the above-described vibrator support structure.
Moreover, another preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device using the above-described vibrating gyroscope.
With these arrangements, in the vibrator having the vibrator support structure according to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the stability of vibration is greatly improved, and the miniaturization thereof can be achieved.
In the vibrating gyroscope according to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the detecting accuracy of angular velocity is greatly increased.
In the electronic device according to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the correction of a camera vibration, the detection of a vehicle position, and other improvements of various devices can be achieved with a high degree of accuracy, and thereby a high performance can be provided.
The features, elements, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will be clear from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.